New York — The United Nations on Tuesday strongly defended Iran’s exclusion from Syria peace talks after criticism from Russia and the Tehran government.
Iran failed to come up with a promised written statement on the Syria conflict and so UN leader Ban Ki-moon was forced to act, UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.
Haq also said Ban was anxious that countries attending the talks, which start in Montreux, Switzerland, on Wednesday, were negotiating “in good faith.”
Ban rescinded an invitation to Iran on Monday just 24 hours after announcing that the ally of President Bashar al-Assad would be at the talks.
The Syrian opposition had threatened to boycott the event if Iran was present and the United States insisted that Iran had to agree to an international communique calling for a transitional government in Syria.
UN officials said Ban spent several days negotiating with Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on publicly supporting the 2012 Geneva communique which calls for the transitional government in a bid to end Syria’s three-year-old war.
“There was an oral understanding that the secretary general had been led to believe would be followed by an actual written understanding,” Haq told reporters to explain the invitation to Iran.
“In fact the opposite is what happened, that Iran stated the same positions that it had held previously. And that is why he expressed his disappointment at Iran’s decision and took his decision to disinvite them,” the spokesman added.